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Dating and Romance: The Problem With Kindness
The Huffington Post: Here's a simple and sad fact: A lot of people who are married, or in long-term relationships, are not very compatible. Partners disagree about very basic stuff, like religion and politics and values, or they simply don't find each other attractive. Just look at the divorce statistics. This raises a knotty and important question. If choosing a partner is such an important life decision, why do so many of us get it wrong? Why does the reality of a relationship fail so often to match our ideals? Obviously there are a lot of little differences that emerge over time, and people do change, but it seems like we should at least get the fundamental issues straight.
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You Can Buy Happiness, If It’s An Experience
NPR: We humans spend a lot of time waiting in lines: People queue up for days in order to get their hands on the latest iPhone, or what feels like eons for a table at that hip new brunch place. You may be better off spending time and money on the latter. A growing body of research has shown that experiences tend to make people happier than material possessions. And even anticipating an experience like a concert, a ski trip or what better be a really great brunch makes us happier than purchasing the latest gadgets, according to a study published Tuesday in Psychological Science.
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Can Electronic Monitoring Improve Employee Performance?
“Your call may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.” We’ve all probably heard this message after dialing a call center before, but have you ever really thought about whether anyone was actually listening in? In an effort to enhance employee performance, organizations like call centers are increasingly using technology to electronically monitor their workers on the job. With electronic performance monitoring, or EPM, supervisors can continually track and analyze an employee’s workflow in real time. When call centers use EPM technology, supervisors are able to review recordings of calls, as well as listening into calls as they happen.
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Harness Your Mind’s “Future Self” Bias to Make Better Decisions
Lifehacker: We don't stick to our resolutions and future goals because our minds don't think of our future selves as "us." But instead of fighting this inherent bias, you can use it and tweak it to make better long-term decisions. Science magazine Nautilus thoroughly explains this disconnect between our perception of our current and future selves. It's a fascinating read. Multiple tests and studies have shown that neural activity when we think of our future selves is more akin to thinking about a third person.Multiple selves is nothing new, but psychologists say that you can harness this trick your mind plays to improve yourself.
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Shared Pain Brings People Together
What doesn’t kill us may make us stronger as a group, according to findings from new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The research suggests that, despite its unpleasantness, pain may actually have positive social consequences, acting as a sort of “social glue” that fosters cohesion and solidarity within groups: “Our findings show that pain is a particularly powerful ingredient in producing bonding and cooperation between those who share painful experiences,” says psychological scientist and lead researcher Brock Bastian of the University of New South Wales in Australia.
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Why Waiting Actually Makes You Happy
TIME: Want to know the secret to happiness? Wait for it. No, really. Wait for it. As long as the “it” is an experience, according to a series of new studies published in the journal Psychological Science. We already know that experiences make you way happier than things do. Studies have shown that spending money on experiences as opposed to goods is more meaningful, makes you less likely to compare yourself to others, and encourages more social engagement. (Vacations trump solo shopping sprees, in other words.) You get those same pleasurable effects long before you even make the purchase and now, researchers have found, waiting to buy those experiences is a lot more fun, too.
